There is no black and white only shades of grey
by The Silica Pen
Summary: Toph moves to a new town and makes new friends but danger has followed her as it has her whole life. AU. Updates infrequent.
1. Earth

"Bad isn't it?"

Toph glanced at the girl who had spoken. She was short, the same height as her, with dark brown hair. "I've seen worse." It was true; a simple boiler explosion at the local school was nothing compared to watching her home city burning. It was a family joke that evil followed them around but this time it looked like it had got ahead of her.

The girl was still blathering on about meaningless things. "Yeah I guess so; they say we can go back in on Monday. No need for uniforms since the school has no heating so we are allowed to wrap up warm."

Toph adjusted the strap of her bag and looked around at the people passing by. "Yeah." She gave a vague response; still not even listening.

"Hey can you see that I'm on fire?" That caught her by surprise. Had the girl really said that or was Toph hearing things again?

The girl was looking at her with a pleading look in her eye so Toph felt it would be best if she gave an answer. "No, look I got to go." The girl called her name, Emily, at Toph's retreating back and told her to look out for her at school. Like that was going to happen.

According to the scrap of paper in her free hand the flat she had bought wasn't much further. A few rich family members had died before the recent fire leaving her the cash to get set up on her own even if she was only 15. "Well, you're only as old as you feel as they say and I feel ancient."

"And you don't look a day under 80." Toph turned to confront the speaker but his oafish grin disarmed her, something that hadn't happened in a long time. "You look like you are new in town; want me to show you around?"

"No, thank you. I just want to find this place." She handed over the scrap of paper she had scrawled the directions she had been told over the phone by her new landlord and the address. The boy's dark skin made her doubt he was Canadian or, at the very least, his parents weren't.

He thought for a moment before snapping his fingers. "Oh I know this, it's over the arcade. You moving in? It's been empty since..." He trailed off and his face darkened for a few seconds. "Since like ever. Come on I'll show you."

"No just tell me..." Toph started but he just grabbed her wrist and started dragging her along behind him laughing all the way. She could feel a blush creeping across her face as he wittered on about silly nonsense. After a minute or so Toph could take no more and snapped. "Let me the hell go!" The boy stopped dead and she crashed into him. "Look why are you so eager to help? Think you are going to get lucky, is that it? Cause if so, will sleeping with you make you go away?"

"Did it again, idiot." He mumbled before swapping grips so he had her hand and shook it. "Sorry about that, my name's Sokka. I guess I come on a bit strong sometimes, Suki was always telling me off about that. We're here by the way, stairs are round the back." He turned to go but before he was out of earshot he spoke over his shoulder. "Oh and you are really good looking I would have liked to get to know you better." He turned a corner and Toph caught a glimpse of his haunted expression.

The blush that had appeared earlier came back with a vengeance; not only from his compliment but also because she was the one that had made him feel so bad. "J-jerkass. Why did he have to say that?" Toph wasn't used to all this attention over a whole year let alone 24 hours.

The landlord was waiting for her and quickly gave her the tour; he seemed to sense she wasn't in the mood to hang around and chat. The lay out was simple; the door opened onto the living room which branched off to the kitchen and bathroom on one side and the bedroom on the other. The only furniture was the bed and the bathroom and kitchen were both very basic.

After the landlord had handed over the keys and left Toph slumped down in the corner of the living room and sighed. "I guess all the things I've been running from have started to catch up to me. Maybe it's time I went to ground; this seams a nice enough place for me." And with that thought buzzing round her head she fell into a deep sleep.

_Sarah stood looking over the railings of the ship and watched the reflection of the moon in the water. She had left her mother at the docks in Southampton because of the immoral way she always acted. "It just isn't right the way she acts, hurting people and ruining their lives all the time."_

_She was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of shouting from the front of the boat. Looking up Sarah saw it was just a couple messing about like a pair of love sick idiots. Not that Sarah could really complain since she and Kate had been the same way when they first met. A smile flashed across Sarah's face at the memory of those simpler times; back when she was happy to live her mother's way. _

"_Hey, what happened? Why did you leave the room?" The soft voice caused Sarah to turn around. Seeing Kate stood there she immediately moved to support her._

"_It's alright. I just needed some air is all. How are you feeling?" They were heeded to America as they had heard about the doctors there and were hoping to find someone that knew what was wrong with Kate; she lacked any real energy and kept fainting._

"_I'm ok. How could I not be with you here? You all ways look after me and make me feel special and right and new."_

* * *

Although it doesn't show it yet this fic crosses over with my Avatar fic that I'm writing at the same time. The plot merges about half way through. Both stories are part of the silicaverse, see my profile for details.

Emily from the opening is from 'make 5 wishes' which is a fairly awesome comic. If you have read it then I have no idea why she is still 'on fire' since Romeo doesn't exist in this universe. So don't ask.

The italic bit is a dream Toph is having but neither Sarah nor Kate is her neither was she ever on Titanic neither did she witness this event in any way.


	2. Water

"_I really want to know what happens if you use the glove twice on one person." The woman who had spoken held her hand up, moved her fingers and watched the exposed wires and circuit boards of the glove. The palm was covered in tiny needles that made it feel almost like Velcro to the touch. _

_The woman's son was between her and another woman; she was younger and was cowering against the wall. The mother was known for her destructive personality but this was a huge risk even for her; the three of them knew so little about the glove other than its basic function and even then they only had a small idea. The son spoke up, "But what if it's harmful? Why does it have to be one of us?" She never did show any care for anyone except her son and sometimes the other woman._

_The mother shrugged and pushed the son aside and stood before the other woman. "Because I don't want anyone else involved if it does something good. I only brought Mary along because you were so adamant about it son." _

"_Well, why do it at all? Can't you use your aspect of knowledge?" The son tried to take his spot between the two back but the mother dodged him and grabbed Mary by her arm before dancing away._

_The other woman struggled and let out a whimper but the mother's grip was too strong. "Just because my 'understanding' lets me know how any machine works doesn't mean I know everything it does; just like you don't always know all the functions of the things you build." The son gritted his teeth at that barb strung onto the end of the sentence like an afterthought and while he was distracted the mother put her hand over the Mary's face._

"_Hey get off her! If you have to do it do it to me!" But before he could cross the floor the glove gave off a spark and Mary screamed. There was a rip as her clothes burst off her back and the reek of burning flesh filled the room._

_The mother dropped her and just stood looking at the glove as if she was surprised at it being there. "No way. I will never do anything to harm you." she spoke absentmindedly. _

_The son was ignoring her for the moment and looking at the other woman. The back of her shirt had been blasted to pieces and her back was covered in burns. "We are leaving in the morning."_

_The mother arched her eyebrows at this. "Are we now? I think we'll be staying a bit longer."_

"_No you weren't listening. _We_ are leaving; _you_ are staying." The son spat out his words in anger still not looking at his mother._

"_Now Son thing about..."_

_The son cut her off with a yell. "I am not your son anymore and you are not my mother. Now you are just..."_

"...Toph. Toph!" The girl's voice cut through her dreams and Toph's eyelids fluttered open. The class room came into focus and at the edge of her vision was a blue haired girl that sat next to her. The girl was shaking her by the arm. "Come on wake up Toph."

Toph shrugged her off and grumbled, "What do you want?" The dream hadn't been a good one but lately all her dreams had been similar ever since she came to this town and as such she hadn't been sleeping very well. Any time she got some shut eye was not to be given up so easily. The dreams were strange, almost like memories but most of them weren't anything she had experienced, she couldn't even experience most of them if she wanted to. The one or two that were her own she was seeing from other people's point of view.

Toph knew little about the girl except she seemed to always be cheerful and helpful; defiantly not the type to ever hurt anyone. "You slept all through math class. The teacher didn't notice though so you're safe but you really should stay awake."

"Like I need to be taught any of this." Anything she needed for life she already knew; school was just for appearances sake since people her age had to go or else there would be trouble. "Thanks for waking me, whoever you are." Toph got up to leave.

"My name is Ryoko Asakura and..." The girl began to introduce herself with a curtsy but Toph just walked past her and headed to the door.

"Don't care." Was all she said before walking into the hall.

As she wandered out into the school yard she thought over the past few days. Life had been too busy to even furnish her flat any more than how it was when she arrived. "Why the hell does everyone keep telling me their names?" First that girl by the school then the guy that showed her where to go and by this point each member of her class had tried to become her friend. Toph wasn't at all interested in friendship with anyone in this town, she would eventually have to leave as she had many times before; seems like she was always running.

As she left the gate Toph just wanted to go home and go to bed but she noticed a familiar face in the crowd. "Hey, Sokka, was it?"

"That's my..." He turned smiling and cut off when he noticed who it was. His face fell and he half turned away. "Oh it's you, what do you want?" His disappointment was evident and it was making Toph blush again; she hated felling responsible and would have to do something about it and quickly.

"Thanks for yesterday; I was out of line I guess." Toph mumbled and Sokka's face lit up. A smirk crossed Toph's face as she decided to tease him a bit; hopefully that would cheer him up even more and maybe make up for what she had said the other day. "Wait a moment, this is a girls school; what are you doing here perv."

Before he could answer another girl arrived and tackled Sokka into a hug. She had a strong family resemblance to him. "Hey bro cheers for the lift."

Sokka laugthed and tried unsuccessfully to extract himself from his sister's arms. "I was waiting for my sister so I could drive her home actually. Not that the student body isn't nice to look at, well one student body anyway." He gave a small whistle.

"Sokka stop embarrassing me!" The girl playfully pummelled his chest.

"Look I have to go." Toph was far too tired and would sleep no matter what night visions came to her once she got home.

"Wait! Do you want to hang out some time? I was going to go shopping tomorrow after school and could do with some company."

Toph thought a moment before calling over her shoulder. "Eh, I'll think about it. Ask me again later."

About halfway home she came across a boy passed out in the middle of the road; no cars were passing luckily and he didn't seem to be hurt. "Hey you! You can't just lie in the middle of the street." Toph kick him gently and as his face turned she could see he had a downward pointing arrow tattooed on his forehead and going by his looks he wasn't much older than her.

"Do you have any food?"

* * *

Tired so not much of a rant today just that Ryoko Asakura is from Haruhi Suzumiya


End file.
